The Florida Roundup - Trump's mega spending bill, Florida’s school voucher program, Donna Adelson guilty verdict and mailbag

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we looked at changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) under President Trump’s mega spending bill. First, we checked in with Meghan Bowman, Your Florida state government reporter (00:56) and later with Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association (09:12). Then, we looked at how Florida rapidly expanded publicly-funded school vouchers and how some students have gotten lost in the mix with Natalie La Roche Pietri, education reporter at WLRN (20:32). And later, we spoke with journalist and co-host of the Surviving the Survivor podcast Joel Waldman about the guilty verdict in a murder-for-hire plot against a FSU Law professor (32:24). Plus, we dug into our mailbag to share some listener feedback about recent shows (37:36).

The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator Program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813 or coveringflora.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. I hope you've been having a terrific week. Today on the Roundup, we'll talk about the mismanagement of money for school vouchers in Florida, and we'll want to hear your stories if you use those vouchers to send your children or grandchildren, nieces, or nephews to another school other than a traditional public school.

We'll also talk a little bit about the Donna Adelson murder-for-hire guilty verdict in Tallahassee that has gripped so many true crime fans and some constructive criticism in our email inbox about a recent interview that I did with a top Republican politician. That's all coming up. But first, President Donald Trump's so-called big beautiful bill and health care here in Florida. The president signed the bill into law on July

4th. It makes changes to two health insurance programs that millions of Floridians rely on, Medicaid and Obamacare. So do you rely on Obamacare or Medicaid for your health insurance? How much is it? What is the coverage like? What questions do you have about it in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead? Call us now 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800 or send us a quick email radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Now, supporters of the law say it will save money by cracking down on wasteful spending and having new work and registration requirements for people for Medicaid. The law ends any incentive for states to expand Medicaid, which Florida never did.

It also eliminates expanded subsidies for people who get their health insurance through health care.gov. You may know it better as Obamacare. Critics of the law say it will lead to higher health care costs and fewer people with health insurance. Now Florida, Florida has a lot at stake. Almost 5 million people get their health insurance here through the Affordable Care Act, and about 4 million rely on Medicaid for their health care. Health care already is the largest slice of state spending. So what questions do you have about the so-called big beautiful bill and health care. 305-995-1800. We'll start with the law and Medicaid. That's the health care program aimed at low-income children and families. It's a mix of money from the federal government and state

taxpayers. Megan Bowman is a reporter for the Your Florida Project at our partner station WUSF in Tampa. Megan, what does this new law, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which is now law, what does it do to Medicaid? The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, estimates about $900 billion in spending cuts over the next decade. Other sources have put that number over a trillion, though. But if we narrow the scope to just Florida, you're looking at about $4 billion in lost federal money to the state each year. Now, there's been a lot of talk about how Florida. won't be as impacted because we're not an expansion state. But the cuts will still have a really huge impact. What does it mean for Floridians who are currently relying on Medicaid for their

health care coverage? These new rules start in January of 2027. This bill also puts more eligibility checks and creates more red tape, more bureaucratic hurdles for people, which, you know, in turn, right, raises the risk of coverage loss due to administrative errors. the implementation of all these exemptions as far as I know are going to be required to have a burden of proof so that is what is going to be the real kicker it's a paperwork thing so that like when we talk about the bureaucratic and the red tape like yes they are but if they are not educated in what the rules are you know for Medicaid to get this coverage they can be denied you know just because of the paperwork issue so I think yes there are exemptions but there's so much

paperwork and proof they have to give there's also new limits on the home equity cap for long-term care eligibility which could mean families with high home values could also lose eligibility you know low-income folks are going to have fewer options for coverage and some of those enrollees they'll also be hit with a $35 co-pays for service. And that can be a lot to a family, you know, who's counting every dollar. How could the new rules around Medicaid and how they're going to be applied in Florida affect the supply of health care services where people are able to get health care that's paid for by Medicaid? That's a great question.

So I attended a Florida Voices for Health Community Listening session on Wednesday. and had some providers and enrollees there. What I heard is it's already difficult for families to find providers that take Medicaid. And what is covered is very limited. So it's a matter of cost, quality, and access. But this bill is going to have a profound impact in rural areas. So, you know, labor and delivery departments have already closed across the state, and that's leaving health care deserts for pregnant women. These hospitals, you know, they will get hit hard, we'll likely see some clothes, and folks with private insurance will almost certainly see higher costs as well.

So what are the options for Floridians affected? How can they get their health care paid? That is still a little bit unclear. So lawmakers have some really hard questions in terms of structuring the Medicaid program this session. I think it will be important to monitor, you know, starting in January, right? But one positive, though, is the expanded ABLE accounts, which is like a special savings account for people with disabilities. Normally, if someone on Medicaid saves too much money, they could lose their benefits.

So before, you could only put about 18,000 in a year, but that's a little bit higher now. Now, throughout the state, there's only about 14,000 people with these types of accounts. And to put that into perspective, that's just about 3% of the eligible folks who could have that account. Very small proportion there. So on the state funding, because Medicaid is this program where dollars from the federal government come into states and then mix with state government dollars, state taxpayer dollars to pay for the health care, how is this new law expected to impact the federal share of Medicaid spending here in Florida and thus the impact on the state budget? Yeah. So it's unclear. Lawmakers are going to have to make those decisions this coming session. But Scott Darius, the executive director at Florida Voices for Health, told me some of the first things on the chopping block are likely the optional services like dental and disabilities. Now the state can either supplement it, make up for that deficit, or as seen in the past, place more restrictions on eligibility

and the level of services provided, which as far as dental goes, that could be exacerbated by the new law banning fluoride in drinking water. Yeah. And when we're talking about, talking about the state share of Medicaid spending, this is a substantial chunk of the overall state budget. And a lot of that money, the state share, is raised through what's called provider taxes. And basically, that's a tax on hospitals and nursing homes. But the big, beautiful bill cap to those, essentially tying the state's hands on raising more that way. So now lawmakers are going to have to, you know, come together and see, okay, how are we going to make that money? in other ways.

Megan Bowman, watching state government for us. Your Florida is a project from our partner station, WUSF. Thanks, Megan. Thanks. 305-9-9-8,800 is our phone number as we're live on this Friday afternoon. Now, the other health insurance program that has changed by the Big Beautiful Bill is Obamacare, officially the Affordable Care Act. During COVID, Congress okayed more money to help people afford the insurance premiums.

Enrollment soared as people could pay less. for their health insurance. The number of Floridians signing up for Obamacare almost doubled in about two years. Today, it's almost 5 million people. This extra money runs out at the end of the year unless Congress acts. And that could lead to people seeing their share

of their premiums for health insurance go up by 75% or more. And open enrollment begins in just a matter of a couple of months here. November 1st is when HealthCare.gov opens up. Mary Mayhew is with us once again here on the Florida Roundup. She heads up the Florida Hospital Association, and she used to lead the agency for health care in the state of Florida. Mary, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you.

Well, thank you. Glad to be here. And our thanks to our partner station, WFSU, for playing host to you in Tallahassee. So the ACA has always been infused with politics from the get-go. After all, it's still called Obamacare in some circles. Democrats want to continue the enhanced subsidies. Republicans generally say the help was meant to be temporary. Do you support the effort to extend the extra subsidy for the insurance premiums?

It is our number one priority. I think to your point, there's a lot of misinformation about the marketplace. It is certainly under the umbrella of the Affordable Care Act, but there hasn't been the focused analysis of what the marketplace has done, and particularly done in states like Florida. This is still a commercial health insurance product. It is still a public-private partnership. But to your point, it's making the difference between individuals having a insurance card in their wallet or not. And we know that without a health insurance card, individuals are not able to access, in particular, primary care,

to be able to have access to the prevention, the primary care, the early intervention, the chronic disease management. So Florida leads the country with over 4.7 million Floridians benefiting from this coverage in the marketplace. So President Trump appointed you to lead Medicaid many years ago. You then served in the DeSantis administration. You have worked for Republican administrations. last month at an event with other conservative business leaders here in Florida, you said, quote, there should be a unified political voice in support of the federal marketplace and the premium assistance in Florida. Mary, why isn't there a unified voice?

Well, I think it continues to go back to a lot of misinformation about what the marketplace is versus Medicaid expansion. The polarizing politics of the Affordable Care Act largely, pertained to Medicaid expansion as that was being debated in Congress, as that played out in the courts. And there really hasn't been a full appreciation or understanding from my perspective of what the marketplace has long represented. In particular, and this is certainly true in Florida, you have hundreds of thousands of small businesses that are benefiting from the market. Either the owners, you know, they're a small entrepreneur, the mom with the daycare center, the couple that's opened, the pizza shop, the guy that wants to do automotive repair.

This may seem like a simple question, Mary, but how are small businesses benefiting from individual insurance, individual health care insurance through health care.gov? Small businesses long before the Affordable Care Act were priced out of the small group market. That has been a challenge across the country to provide affordable health insurance options for small businesses to purchase the employer, the owners to purchase for themselves or for their employees. So these owners are able to get their individual coverage through the marketplace, but their employees are also able to get their coverage through the marketplace. The vast majority of these individuals that are getting coverage through the marketplace are working. are employed. You have to earn above 100% of the federal poverty level in order to get access to the assistance. And to get access to the enhanced assistance, which are the ones that are due to expire at the end of this calendar year, a family of four in the state of Florida can make up to

$128,000, $128,000, and still qualify for a tax credit in order to get a health care plan under Obamacare. certainly as you look at the federal poverty levels and those who benefit though 3.8 million of those getting coverage through the marketplace earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level so for a household of one just to give folks an idea there that's a little over that's like in the mid-60,000 dollar range right for a family of three it's 54,000 dollars a year okay And so roughly, what, two-thirds, three-quarters of Floridians who have insurance through Obamacare are at that income level or below? Or below, and the vast majority are actually between 100% and 150%.

So a family of three at 150% of federal poverty is $39,000 a year. I know we're talking about a lot of numbers here, Mary, but it's people behind all those numbers, which are really important in the health care behind them as well. A hundred percent. And these are not individuals who, if they lose this enhanced premium assistance. And again, their premiums are going to skyrocket. Some estimates are that these premiums are going to go up 93% or more. A thousand dollars a month or more is simply unrealistic to expect that these individuals will be able to afford that. They will not be able to purchase this coverage. And they don't have likely employer-sponsored coverage. And they will not qualify. for Medicaid because they earn above 100% of the federal poverty level. Mary, I want to bring in Susan, who is listening in Jacksonville. Susan, thanks for your patients. You're on the radio with Mary Mayhew at the Florida Hospital Association. Go ahead, Susan.

Susan, you're still with us? Can you hear us? Okay. We'll try to get Susan with us here, Mary, in a moment. But I believe Susan was going to tell us her story about not being able to qualify for the subsidies because of our income level and falling into that reality of a very expensive premium under the Affordable Care Act because her income is above some of these limits that are specified. Well, and Tom, I mean, this has long been a challenge around the country where the individual health insurance market, again, long before the ACA was referred to as being in a death spiral, meaning it was collapsing. It was so expensive that any individual, a self-employed,

a independent contractor could not afford health insurance. Sorry to interrupt, Mary. I think we've got Susan back on the line in Jacksonville. Susan, can you hear us now? Okay, great. Go ahead. You're on the radio. I want to chime in with a couple real numbers here.

I am a very healthy, very capable, 50 plus year old, not too old, not too young, very healthy. I am a contractor, and you're talking about these subsidies going away. that will be an additional $800 a month that I have to pay for insurance and I already pay $400 in the Affordable Care Act. So this is really disconcerting. Real numbers, it's just unimaginable. Yeah, Susan, I appreciate you.

Thank you for sharing that. And I'm also in that club of the 50-something, Susan. So we'll keep going together in that deck. Mary, we also got an email from Heather who writes us. I'm a housekeeper and have insurance through the marketplace. I feel like I'm being pushed back into the corporate job force for health insurance, but generally like to work as a contractor. Heather says she has rheumatoid arthritis. What do I do if I can't afford it? What do you say to Susan and Heather? They are absolutely the examples of individuals who depend on the marketplace, who are going to lose their coverage. The estimate is that well over a million Floridian, will lose coverage through the marketplace. And again, the harsh reality is there isn't alternative coverage. And that's what I've been communicating with our congressional delegation.

Let's not have false expectations that these individuals have some other choice to get their health insurance elsewhere. They will become uninsured. And when individuals are uninsured, it means that they have to rely, unfortunately, often on the emergency department for access to care, the most expensive point of entry to the health care system. The public safety net. You have navigated the halls of politics, the halls of state houses.

And if you're navigating the halls of Congress now, what are you saying to Florida's mostly Republican delegation on Capitol Hill about the expiration at the end of the year of these enhanced credits? I have been emphatic about this as a priority. And my constant refrain is, if not the... than what? And are you getting an audience? I am getting an audience. I was just there Monday and Tuesday. I am relatively encouraged. It's a tough battle in D.C. This has become so polarizing. And I want an objective analysis of, if not this, then what? It can't simply be an opposition

because it was adopted under the Affordable Care Act. Mary, we have to leave it there. Mary Mayhew with the Florida Hospital Association. Always a pleasure, Mary. Thanks for your thoughts with us. Thanks for having me. She joined us from our partner station, WFSU in Tallahassee. We got more to come here on the Florida Roundup.

Stick with us. You're listening to it from your Florida Public Radio Station. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by covering Florida Navigator Program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813-92115 or covering Florida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson.

Terrific to have you along. Next week on our program, two states and two very different approaches to immigration. There's Alligator Alcatraz here in Florida, as Governor Ronda Santos has led the charge to fulfill President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies. Meantime, National Guard and Marines were sent to support the crackdown effort in Los Angeles without authorization from California Governor Gavin Newsom. We'll have a live simulcast next week with colleagues in San Francisco to talk about the differences in how Florida and California have responded to the president's immigration enforcement tactics. So here's what we want to know. What do you think

about the Sunshine States strategy of embracing the crackdown? What do you think about California's more hands-off state approach? Email us now radio at the Florida roundup.org. Radio at the Florida roundup.org. That'll be next week. Now, school vouchers in Florida. More than half a million students use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition

or other educational services. The nonprofit organization tasked with distributing these state-funded vouchers to families mismanaged the money, according to a recent report by the state auditor general. Among the findings were delayed. distribution of the funds and some overpayments. Education reporter Natalie LaRoche-Piatry with our partner station W.

Lerlaren in Miami spoke to one mom to hear her challenges. As Irene and I were settling into our interview, her six-year-old daughter figured it was the perfect time for us three to have an afternoon tea party. Excuse me? Yes. Can you get my tea set? Not right now. I'll get it in a second.

Can I'll get it? I'll be right back. She came back with tiny mermaid teacups and a raspberry tart made of plastic. The little girl became entranced in her own world. She has autism. She thrives the best in a setting where it's maximum 10 children. So the school that she's in now, like complete turnaround. Like her speech has improved so much.

Her math, they're saying that she's close to third grade level in math. So it's just night and day, night and day. The school that made such a difference in her daughter's life is private. Irene struggles to pay for the tuition on her own. As a single parent who's trying to pay a rent that's pretty close to $2,000 a month on top of bills and in her food, she has special dietary needs, it's just, it's a lot. It's a lot for any one person to deal with. Irene planned on paying for the school with the state voucher meant for students with disabilities.

her daughter got approved for more than $10,000, but the money didn't come. I thought that this school choice program was designed to help kids like her not get just overlooked. Irene asked us to not use her full name or her daughter's name, since she's still fighting for the funding and doesn't want to jeopardize her case. Last school year, Irene's daughter switched from a public charter school to this private school, and there was a lag in updating enrollment records. the Florida Department of Education checked, the then kindergartener's name came up in her old school's enrollment. The state froze the voucher to make sure her daughter didn't get funding

for public and private school at the same time. Irene ended up paying most of the tuition out of pocket last year. For months, she's been emailing and calling everyone she could think of. Just disheartening, like, do I just give up? Do we move out of Florida? Like, how do I say to move out of Florida like I want to be in a place where she can get the support that she needs but it's just like a lot of finger pointing for most voucher programs the money comes through the state to a non-profit called step up for students which then doles it out to families if you use school vouchers what has your experience been call us now 305-995 1800 parents grandparents aunts uncles we want to hear from you maybe you work at a private school that accepts these school vouchers what has that experience been like as the program has expanded tremendously over the past two years 305995 1800 reporter natalie la roche petri is with us now natalie remind us how florida got to this massive expansion of school vouchers so in 2020 there was the passing of hb1 which essentially removed requirements for who was eligible for the vouchers before that law to qualify you had to have a certain income requirement um or your student your child had to have a

had to have a disability to qualify. That law did away with those requirements and expanded it so that every family and every child could use public dollars for private schooling. So demand skyrocketed by this, right? By the tens of thousands of families now wanted to participate in this. What was the demand like when it opened up vouchers for all? So after the law was passed, in May 2023, the step up for students, as you heard, in that intro went in May 2023 they had 258,000 students by August of that year they had 420,000

and they only had pretty much that summer to prepare for the heightened volume of applications and school year that was ahead so it almost doubled in just a couple of months and the schools that wound up being approved or or wanting to get access to this also I suspect expanded pretty substantially. Yeah, I think it was about 2,000 schools that were added to the schools that qualified for the vouchers. I think at the time there was also a lot of conversation around how it would impact public funding, school for public schools. And I think that was a really prominent narration that we were hearing about, which is really valid. But at the same time, there wasn't a lot of attention on how overloaded the system was, kind of

all at once and how it could affect the kids who were already depending on the vouchers. We're still having the debate about the impact on traditional public schools, even this school year as you know as education reporter, but this look really under the hood about the process of parents and families getting access to the vouchers, the schools, getting receiving the money in order for the children to be educated. There was an audit that you mentioned and reported on in this piece of this program. And what did the audit find? It found a lot of things.

And it was specific to that time of the expansion. So immediately kind of after the law was passed. Mainly, there were errors in-house up for students managed applications and funding at the time. One of the issues with that was that it incorrectly prioritized applications for the unique abilities voucher. By prioritizing students who were new to the voucher instead of students who had already been using it. um as state law says it should but step up for students says that because of the volume of applications that they were getting and they were trying to get kind of everyone in at once i think they handled it on a first come first term basis instead yeah um it also found overfunded of some accounts so the

cap on on the unique abilities vouchers 50 000 um some accounts were overfunded which means so the audit warned that more funds to one account could mean depletion of funds to one Another account. Right. Yeah, you can't spend the same dollar twice. Exactly. And how much money are we talking about here? The program has almost doubled in terms of students. How much money are we to, and where is that money coming from? So the money comes from the state budget allocated to Department of Education, and then the Department of Education sends it to step up for students to each family or school, essentially. We're talking about school choice in general, about $4 billion that's been dedicated to these expansions and the choices that we're seeing in Florida now. What's been the response from the organization that administers this program, step up from students for the audit and the shortcomings it found? Yeah, in direct response to the audit, they said that it was a challenging time, and they learned a lot of valuable lessons during that time, and they've implemented changes, hired more people to help handle the amount of applications,

and that they're proud to serve over 500,000 students now. You also spoke with Republican Senator from the Panhandle, Don Gates, about this, and he sits on the Senate committee that oversees public education funding here in Florida. This is what he told you. We're hearing about it in our Senate office a whole lot more. This problem is not getting better as it's getting older. It's getting worse as it's getting older. That's quite an indictment from a Republican about a school choice program

that Republicans have expanded greatly, as you've mentioned. Yeah, correct. One of the first things he told me in our interview was that he thinks HB1 was done too quickly. and without enough guardrails to kind of on-ramp the expansion. And it was really interesting to hear his perspective on the issue, and he was one of a few senators to pass legislation in the Senate to increase oversight and transparency. Yeah, so what are some of his suggestions to solutions to address the shortcomings here,

as you've seen great expansion of demand for this program? Right. One of the things that the legislation would have done was to have more specific ID numbers for students applying to the vouchers or students that already have the vouchers. Another effort in the bill was to change the payment schedule, change it from being quarterly as it is now to changing it to monthly payments for families and schools. And some other things were also in there about better tracking and the platform that gets used. And so what's been the impact on the schools that are supposed to receive the money, like the schools that Irene, the mother that you reported on, is supposed to receive that she wound up paying the tuition for?

Yeah, they have to cut staffing a lot of them. And the resources that they're able to provide for the students are more limited because of it. And it's kind of cyclical because parents are already putting their children in these schools for those specific services. and now without the money, then the schools can't offer the services that the parents were originally seeking. So how do you get out of that? And so what is the path forward here? The next school year obviously is underway here, right? You've got an expansion of this program that's continued. More parents have learned about it. They want to take advantage of it. The marketing of K-12 education has really greatly expanded with school choice here in Florida.

there an appetite to reform this program so early in its stages? I think there is, especially in my conversation with Don Gates. He said that this was one of the things that he was going to be bringing up next legislative session because of how imperative it is for families. And, you know, the, the, I think something important to highlight here is that while the numbers in the story reflect that most of the students do get properly funded and that it does happen on time, we're looking at some other students that haven't been, potentially thousands. And when we've split numbers like that to us, it may just sounds like numbers, but each one is a family. And for any parent who's listening, their child is their whole world. Right, right. So that's... One of those families

impacted on it. Exactly. So that's really the impact of this. So Irene, the mother that you spoke to with the autistic six-year-old, has she gotten the voucher? She didn't get it for the remainder of last school year, but she did get the first quarterly payment for this school year. It remains to be seen if she's going to get the next one coming up, I think, in November it is. And how is she then paying tuition? Out of pocket. And if you, I mean, in the longer version of the story, you also hear how she's thinking about leaving Florida altogether. One of the other things that I heard was kind of all of the people that I spoke to were really in favor of school choice, right? But But they almost felt a resentment because Florida boasting so much of its program and then failing them individually.

Natalie, we'll leave it there. Thank you for sharing your reporting with us. Thank you. You are listening to the Florida Rondeup from your Florida Public Radio Station. Last week, in an 11-year-old murder case in Tallahassee came to a close. Donna Edelson was convicted of first-degree murder for putting together a plan to kill her former son-in-law, who was a law professor at Florida State University. Now, this case really captured the attention of a lot of people.

True crime, family secrets, murder for hire with tragic consequences. Journalist Joel Waldman hosts Surviving the Survivor, a true crime podcast. He's based in Florida, and Joel and I worked together about 25 years ago. It's nice to see you, brother. Great to see, Tom. Sadly, we're getting old, but it's better than the alternative. Time is marching forward. That is true. So what was Don Adelson convicted of doing in this case? The counts were first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation.

And the fear here was the first count, which is the first-degree murder, actually taking someone who wasn't physically involved in shooting and killing Dan Markell, who at the time was an FSU law professor, had gone to Harvard undergrad in Harvard Law, and was this rising legal scholar. The real concern was, can you connect her to the murder? But you had a prosecutor in Georgia Kaplanman up in Tallahassee, prosecutor of the year, and she more than proved her case, and they got a guilty verdict on the first, second, and third counts here. And that first count, first degree murder, premeditated murder, planned to and expected to kill the individual involved here.

You know, it doesn't get more serious than that, Joel, even though she wasn't at the scene. Yeah, 100%. And so during opening statements, the prosecutor, another prosecutor, Sarah Catherine Dugan, who's excellent, use this analogy of like a train car. So you've got the conductor at the front, the engineer in the caboose, and these different people in different cars that aren't necessarily physically attached to each other, but they're all headed in the same direction. I thought it was a really powerful metaphor and for the jurors. And I've had a chance to interview three of the jurors already,

and they all thought it was just very compelling evidence against Donna Adelson. She is said to have been the mastermind. A lot of this happened in South Florida, where the FBI put out, a so-called bump on her. Just a very fascinating case. It extends over an 11-year period. What made the case for jurors? Because this was, as we've mentioned, a first-degree murder case against someone who was not at the scene.

It did not take the jury that long. And I'll share with you, I've actually served on a first-degree murder jury. And it took us longer to come to a unanimous conclusion than it did in this case with these 12 individuals. Yeah, this jury only deliberated for about three hours and 18 minutes, which ironically. is about exactly the same as they had deliberated for her son charlie who's also convicted you know in florida life means life so she's never getting out but there were um wire taps and a an fbi undercover who's so-called uh tickled uh the wire and got donna idelson to come out and talk and code to her son about the planned event and i think at the end it was that code language that really

perked up the jurors ears she also tried to flee to vietnam on a one-way ticket this is a very wealthy family who literally could have taken a private jet, and they were so frugal that they bought a one-way ticket. And then there's a mountain of other evidence that the jurors just simply couldn't overlook, and it was game over for Donna. So 11 years in, I think, five co-conspirators in this case, is this murder case over? The short answer is I don't think so. So there are two other unindicted co-conspirators. One is Donna's daughter and also the ex-wife of Dan Markell. Her name is Wendy, Wendy with an eye, Adelson, and she has left South Florida.

She said to either be in Texas or Colorado. And then it's my opinion, and only my opinion, that Harvey Adelson, at one time, very well-known dentist in South Florida, there is just no way that a family that is enmeshed as this family and as frugal as this family was, that the father didn't know that Donna Adelson now convicted was paying a middlewoman as part of this whole schemes. It is important to note there was a brother who gave testimony, Rob Adelson, on behalf of the state. He's been estranged for the family, and it's just wild because he's like the one good egg in this family. He spoke the truth, and that also impacted jurors tremendously. It captured the attention, and we'll continue to as well. Joel, thanks for sharing your reporting with us. Much appreciated. Tom, great to be with you.

Joel Waldman, Surviving the Survivor, True Crime Podcast. All right, stick around. We are going to click open our listener email. inbox. A lot of you have been writing. It's great to hear from all of you. We've got some questions, some critiques, and a little bit of celebration of reading. That's still to come here on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace.

Assistance is available at 877813.915 or covering Florida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along this week. You know, it's been a while since we clicked open our listener inbox, so we figured we would take a quick tour of some of the recent emails that you've been sending us. And that inbox is always open. You can send us a note, Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Now, in last week's program, we talked about Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lattipo's effort to get rid of vaccine requirements. Who am I as a government or anyone else or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body? Bob and Tallahassee sent us this note.

Lattipo says it's not his job to tell us what to put in our bodies. Actually, it is his job as Surgeon General to both tell us what is the best. force of action with medical issues and to give us an accurate understanding of those medical issues. Bob writes, sometimes for the greater good, he is going to have to mandate certain things like life-saving vaccines. And then Bob noted, he actually did tell us what to put in our bodies. No vaccine. That was clearly his message. You didn't actually say it, but he did. Mark in North Miami wrote, how can Lattipose say that in one breath, who am I to tell you what you should put in your body, and the next deny care to transgender individuals and

dictate and deny care that is life-saving. Ruth has been listening and said she's 74 years old, lives in St. Petersburg. She noted, I'm flying to Baltimore in late September and want to be protected against COVID in crowded public spaces. My husband has a serious chronic health condition and also needs to be protected against COVID. Ruth says, I tried to find a pharmacy in St. Petersburg today where I could get my COVID booster. Not only do they not have any vaccines, they don't know when they will or whether I'll need a prescription to get one.

Ruth said, in contrast, I called a pharmacy at my trip destination in Delaware. Not only do they have the new COVID shots available now, I can make an appointment, and there's no need for a prescription nor any age restriction. Ruth says, I guess I have to leave Florida for adequate necessary health care. And then our friend Terry in Melbourne,

who is an astute listener, said, regarding vaccines, one can talk about freedom and about side effects ad infinitum, but the elephant in the room is politics. Last week, former Florida Speaker of the House, Paul Renner, announced he was running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and we spoke with him. We asked him about several issues, including mandatory vaccines. I want parents to be comfortable that they can talk to their physician and get advice. And what I want to mandate is information.

I want to mandate that people. are fully informed. That's what medical informed consent is all about, not mandating that their kids necessarily have to take a shot that they may be uncomfortable with. Jay Wagner was listening and wrote, Mr. Renner is being disingenuous in his answers. Historic public health does just look at the science. People don't have confidence because politicians fostered conspiracy theories. Without adequate levels of compliance, herd immunity doesn't work. Public health officials did the best with the data they had for a worldwide pandemic. Ricardo wrote, what is Paul Renner's position in the expansion of the death penalty in Florida

and the record pace of executions this year by Governor Andesantis? After all, Renner was awarded recognition by the Florida Catholic bishops. Ricardo was right because in March, the Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops gave Renner its Defensor Dignatatus Award. That award was presented, quote, in appreciation for efforts to protect the human dignity of the residents of Florida, end quote. That's according to the bishops. The organization specifically mentioned Renner's efforts to pass the six-week abortion ban here in the state.

So, Ricardo, we will have to ask Renner about his position on the death penalty and the state's use of execution when we speak with them next. Speaking of interviews and politicians, we talked with the Florida chief financial officer Blazingolia in late August about several issues, including Alligator Alcatraz, redistricting efforts and the state doge work. Laura in Miami wrote us, I truly appreciate the in-depth Florida-focused coverage you provide every week on the Florida Roundup, but I was appalled by the interview with Florida's CFO Blazingolia.

He lied repeatedly during the interview and you did nothing to question, challenge, or counter much of what he was saying. One really big and obvious lie was when he said they had added nothing to the already existing footprint of the jet port known as Alligator Alcatraz. All right, Laura, this is what the CFO said on the program. The footprint really didn't expand past what alligator alcatraz was already there for. Laura's critique continued, she wrote, while your own reporting documents that there has already been an additional 800,000 square feet of asphalt paving.

Now, the federal judge hearing one of those lawsuits against the facility, wrote about the additional 800,000 square feet of paving. Laura's right about that. Laura continued, how is that? helping inform people to let public officials come on your show and lie unchallenged and uncorrected. Is that reporting? Is that journalism? The interview as a whole was insufficiently accurate or informative on a variety of the subjects you discussed. Laura concluded, thanks for your work to help keep us informed. Michael in Parrish, Florida, also had a critique

of my interview with the CFL. He wrote, I wish you would have pushed back against the obvious partisan remarks and attacks made by Blaze and Golia. I love public radio and that it tries to be as neutral as possible and brings on people from both sides of the political spectrum. But when there are obvious partisan remarks being made by either side, then I would really appreciate it if you guys would stop and fact-check the person being interviewed on the spot. Michael and Laura, we do our best, and I do appreciate your critiques. We will continue to hold people accountable and fact-check our guests as best as we can on our program. And I know when we fall short, you will let us know.

We talked about painting over pavement murals in crosswalks and intersections last week. This week, two cities lost their rainbow crosswalks, Key West, and Delray Beach. The painting had been on the pavement in Old Town in Key West since 2015, and some of the black paint that covered up the rainbow in Delray Beach was washed away by the rain. Jay Figby emailed many aesthetic and practical changes to crosswalks and bike lanes are attractive and provide an attention-getting aspect that's good. An example I appreciate is the green and white crosswalk markings and bike lane markings. J. Figby, I got you on those bike lanes. Always be sure to wear your helmet. Always wear your helmet.

I can tell you that from personal experience. And then Addy sent us this note. The subject was painted crosswalks. And Addy wrote, good morning. Where are the Epstein files? All right, so noted. I'm Tom Hudson, and you are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public radio station. We're going through listener emails here on the program. You can always reach us radio at the Florida roundup.org. Radio at the Florida roundup.org. You know, a few weeks ago, we had journalist and author Michael Grunwald on the program. He's out with a new book called We Are Eating the Earth, the race to fix our food system and save our climate. He reports on the various efforts to improve food and also save land. Last year, Florida became the first state

to ban lab-grown meat. This is Governor DeSantis in 2024 signing that ban into law. Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. And so we asked Mike about it when he was on the program in August. It's insane that in the

free state of Florida, right, supposedly cares about competition and the free market. Innovation. They're telling us what kind of meat we can eat. Jay wrote, I have mixed feelings about lab-grown meat. As someone who does most of their own cooking and is savvy about environmental issues, I recognize the deep impact beef has on climate change.

In a conversation with my family about how weird, unnatural lab-grown meat is, I pointed out that the way we raise animals now isn't really all that natural either. Millions of animals raised on feedlots and in massive warehouses raised on GMO feed pumped up with antibiotics in some cases, there is a lot we don't know about our food.

How can we better understand lab-grown meat for both health and the environment? You know, speaking of books, just before Labor Day, our summer reading program, and we spoke with an author about pythons and what we can learn from them. We talked with Annabel Tomitich about her biography growing up in Fort Myers and how her mother is a felon because of mangoes. And also with Delia Cologne, who wrote a Florida vegetarian cookbook. She's also the host of the Zest podcast at our partner station WUSF. Alexander was listening

and wrote, Good Day. I really enjoyed both the Python book review and the Florida a mango book discussion. I personally love reptiles of all types and mangoes as well. I've been doing a somewhat deep dive on mangoes, the various cultivators, and species of trees. I was very happy to hear about a couple of common types I've been researching, such as the Kent, Hayden, and Turpentine mangoes. Anyway, Alexander writes, my summer reading list consisted of much older books. He sent several of them, one of them, A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Vern. How about that? And then to get even deeper, Some Nietzsche was on Alexander's summertime reading list,

Twilight of the Idols. Heavy stuff, man. Also, one more note on books. We had a short conversation last week with journalist and author Carl Hyacin. He's out with a new novel entitled Fever Beach. And I asked Carl about a survey that found adults spend only about 30 minutes a day reading for pleasure, and they spend about twice as much time playing video games. It's a tough thing to be competing with online gambling. But luckily, fortunately, people are still buying books.

It's still always amazed me to walk through an airport these days and see someone reading an actual bound book versus, you know, staring at their phone and playing angry birds. Hugh and Cedar Key was listening to that conversation, and Hugh wrote us still a fervent reader here, including Carl Hyacen. Today's show reminded me why I read real books versus audiobooks. I can hold, make notes, turn page corners and plop splayed open. A used copy of Fever Beach will be read when available. Ah, Hugh, we love the fact that you're reading. You're a frugal reader. Now, we'll note, we do have a longer conversation with Carl

on a program coming up during the holiday season later on this year. The inbox is always open. We love to hear from you. Congratulations and critiques. You name it, we want to hear from you. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. That is the Florida Roundup this week, produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Denise Royal.

WLRoyle's Vice President of Radio is Peter Meritz. Our technical director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto J. and Jackson Hart. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at Aaron Leibos.com. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your slice of Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. The Florida Roundup is sponsored by Covering Florida Navigator program, providing confidential assistance with health insurance enrollment through the health insurance marketplace. Assistance is available at 877-813 or coveringflora.org.